I'm helping my grandma do genealogy. With the Italian side, the language, unfortunately, didn't survive, so I'd like to learn to at least read and write Italian to help with those records. What sources are out there to help with that? Does anyone have any good suggestions on learning techniques? I do know Spanish (I lived in Spain for a few years and learned it in country), so Italian shouldn't be too difficult to pick up.Thanks for any advice and guidance.

“Italian Genealogical Records: How to Use Italian Civil, Ecclesastical & Other Records etc” by Trafford R Cole (You can view an extract of this book on line here: http://www.amazon.com/Italian-Genealogi ... 0916489582) This book has been highly recommended as both an easy read and also a great reference book.

I find that using the "search" tool here at IG is also great because most of the questions that people have, have already been asked before.

Probably the biggest challenge with reading the records is being able to decipher the script and there are always great people here at IG that can help you along the way with this. I think once you start building up your vocabulary of words specific to Italian records it all becomes less of a challenge as well.

​Italians have a long and deep-rooted tradition of beliefs about luck and things that give either good or bad luck. In Italy there are colloquial names for bad luck. Think of:"sfiga" or "jella" (read it as "yella), but the most scary thing for millions of Italians is "Il Malocchio", which translate ...

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